Annie Cresta Is In Love
by inelegantprose
Summary: "That's your problem, Annie. Your heart is too goddamn big." Drabbles for everyone Annie has ever loved. Non-chronological. Prompts welcome.
1. Alysia

They crouch under the west-most dock – old hiding spot, crushes carved into the planks: _Alysia + Seamus, Annie + Carson_. To Annie it is a wonder that they are still a pair – now Annie is pale and lithe where Alysia is dark and strong, now they wear brassieres and throw knives, now they knew words like "tessera" and "trident," now Alysia has been chosen tribute. Now Alysia confesses: she can't do it. Now Annie says, I love you. Annie says, I'll volunteer.

Alysia laughs like gratefulness and harshness together. "Always knew your big heart would kill you, Cresta."

Almost does.


	2. Peeta (1)

She bears witness to everything he endures: lashes and shocks, mostly, and lies about his love. Sometimes they dress him up for interviews. They are always dressing Annie up: rouge and lipstick and polish that makes her fingernails luscious, impotent claws.

On those day they both smile, pained. "Miss Cresta," he croaks. " _How_ are you enjoying this ball?"

It would be funny if he weren't so bruised and she so naked. Annie finds the strength to curtsy. "Dear Mellark, it's simply _divine._ " They waltz in adjacent cells, Peeta tapping out a beat. Reach out hands. Are almost able to touch.


	3. Haymitch

"This is Haymitch, Annie," Finnick says, guiding her carefully to the next victor. She hears him, just barely, over the rush of water in her ears – his voice sounds too gentle to be Finnick Odair. "He's from 12, remember?"

Annie nods just barely but she is so absent: her sister is dead, Nolan is dead, her father is dead, twenty-three tributes are dead, she wishes she were dead. She feels herself sliding, collapsing into Finnick.

"Pleasure," Haymitch says, bending down to kiss her hand. "Lucky girl. I've been drinking for years to try to get to the state you're in."


	4. Katniss (1)

Annie has a minor crush, shhh, on Katniss Everdeen who is:

1) Everything Annie isn't: emotionless, brave

2) Also: able to protect her sister

3) Put-together, but also

4) In Love.

For the first time, Annie pays rapt attention to the Games. She is desperately pulling for this shockingly strong girl. Katniss Everdeen would never go mad. Katniss Everdeen would shoot an arrow into the heart of "mad," actually.

"Finn," Annie says in one of their calls, when she's comforting him after clients and he's promising he'll be home soon. "Isn't it awful?"

"Mm?"

"They're star-crossed lovers. Just like us."


	5. Prim

Who sits beside her in the hospital and braids her hair and teaches her how to use margarine like lotion, soft skin for the fragile. Who asks the questions with care, who lets her know where Finnick is whenever she wakes up alone, who understands what it means to be the object of someone else's desire to protect. Who gets called little, too. Who gets called precious, too. Who understands what it is to be someone else's prized possession. Who was also used for screams. (Who cried only "KATNISS!" nothing of her own – just a call to be saved.)

 _"FINNICK!"_


	6. Nathan

"I don't want to look at him I don't want to touch him."

(It was a hard labor, and the end result was hideous: this wailing alien covered in purple slime. Annie wanted to wail, too.)

"He's not Finnick! Everyone keeps telling me I'm lucky to have a piece of Finnick – they're lying, Jo! It's not him!"

"Please can you just – I need to grab your meds, and my hands are full. Can't you hold him for a minute?"

So finally, she did.

Later, Peeta would ask, "Did you love Nathan right away, Annie?"

"No. He crept up on me."


	7. Johanna (1)

Some names Johanna had for Annie:

\- Dipshit

\- Nuts

\- Crazy

\- Princess

\- Loony

Some names Annie had for Johanna:

\- Piece of work

\- Low-key terrifying

\- "Finnick, do you have feelings for Johanna?"

\- Tough girl

\- Katniss Everdeen without the cool love story part

But also:

\- Vulnerable

\- Tender

\- Good-hearted

\- Protective

\- Fierce. So fierce.

Johanna'd croaked, her voice cracking and weak, "Hey princess, how's it hanging?"

And Annie had blown her a weak kiss from her cell on the other side of the room. And Annie had mouthed, _love you_.


	8. Johanna (2)

"Remember, he doesn't like carrots!" Annie called as she wrangled the six-year-old into his pants.

"Of course I remember. _Duh_."

"And you're packing the cod from dinner?"

"I got it, relax, get some clothes on the kid."

Annie turned to Nathan, "Okay baby, one-two-three," and zipped and buttoned. "You ready for your first day of school?"

"Born ready!" he said, and he laughed like Finnick. "Mo-om. I'm gonna be late!"

He grabbed his lunch and rushed to the door, then turned around. "Bye Mama! Bye Mommy! Love you!"

Johanna and Annie grinned at each other, waved back. "Love you too!"


	9. Finnick (1)

Once, Annie had a spell so bad she was out for hours, battling Careers and starvation and inadequacy for an entire evening.

When she came to, she was sure reality was a hallucination.

Finnick had dressed her in her softest nightgown, combed through her hair, washed her face. He'd lit a fire and candles too – no electrics humming. Draped over every surface was woven lace, gauzy, spun into snowflakes.

The room flickered, shimmered, glowed, like loveliness, like a different world.

Finnick kissed her softly. "I wanted you to have something worth coming out."

Annie smiled. "But o, I have you."


	10. Nathan (2)

The way he wields a wooden trident to protect her, this little person who knows she needs care. The mutual adoration and assistance, how at eight he's already learned the ways to call her out of her own mind, pressing seashells into her palms. How he teaches Primrose to swim by holding her like a bride while she backstrokes. How for eight years they have shared a bed, his cheek pressed against her cheek, his hot breath catching with dreams. How he loves peaches and hates tuna, like Finnick. How she's remembered again what it means to be in love.


	11. Peeta (2)

Some reasons Peeta calls Annie:

"Annie, I think Katniss has some kind of life-threatening disease, I'm scared." (She was pregnant.)

"Annie, I'm so sorry to bother you but the baby _moved_."

"Annie, I just remembered – _Finnick_ was the one who gave us Real or Not Real. It was _Finnick_." (Of course.)

"Annie, Primrose walked today!"

"Annie, next time you visit can Nathan please stop pretending there are sharks in the lake?"

Some reasons Annie calls Peeta:

"Peeta, do you remember how I sang to you in the Capitol?"

"Peeta, do you remember my wedding cake?"

"Peeta, I'm on my way."


End file.
